European 2nd Generation Biofuels: Opportunities and Applications

An overview about current European research projects was given followed by site visit of pilot plants to demonstrate feasibility of the technologies.

In April 2018 the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and INERATEC GmbH hosted the first workshop of the COMSYN project in Germany. About 60 participants from all over Europe gathered to exchange their ideas. The aim was to give an overview about current European research projects in alternative fuels. Furthermore, future developments of biofuel technologies have been discussed as well as approaches to raise efficiency and improve the competitiveness of next generation biofuels. The event addressed to the project partners as well as interested parties and international experts from the biofuel industry and research.

Starting April 18th in Stuttgart at hotel campus.guest the DLR organized a conference concerning the current status of biofuels in general, current projects and the tasks of the partners within the COMSYN project.

The next day the workshop continued at INERATEC in Karlsruhe with the visit of COMSYN test rig, a presentation of the gained knowledge and a demonstration of the pilot plant under construction. Subsequently, the BioLiq® plant at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was visited.

+ Project information:

Compact Gasification and Synthesis process for Transport Fuels (COMSYN) is an EU funded international project with partners from Finland, Germany, Czech Republic and Italy. Started in May 2017 it will run for the next four years with a funding of EUR 5.1 million from EU Horizon 2020. The concept is to combine decentralized and centralized processes as next step towards competitive low carbon energy solutions.

Therefore, the decentralized process is developed using compact but highly efficient technologies. A decentralized unit comprises gasification of biomass, Synthesis gas treatment (filtration, reforming, sulfur removal) and a synthesis unit to convert the gas stream into hydrocarbons.

The obtained synthetic hydrocarbons are then transported to an oil refinery where they get upgraded. The final product is high quality Bio Transport Fuels.

+ Photo:

Participants of the 1st COMSYN workshop at INERATEC GmbH, Germany. April 18th/19th 2018.

COMSYN is an EU Horizon 2020 project. It is funded by grant agreement No 727476. The project partners are ÅF-Consult Ltd. and VTT from Finland, DLR, INERATEC and GKN from Germany, Amec Foster Wheeler (Wood.) from Italy and UniCRE from Czech Republic.

+ Upcoming events:

In the scope of the COMSYN project two more international workshops are scheduled for 2019 (Czech Republic) and 2020 (Finland). Further information can be found on the internet (see below).